What happens when the mind reaches a critical point of diminishing returns?

Osho, even while sitting within a vast storehouse of memories of billions upon billions of years, how can a seeker become unburdened by the mind? Such an immense past gives rise to despair in the heart.

Donkeys are great contemplatives! They look so pensive standing around—always thinking. That famous sculpture, The Thinker, by Rodin—very highly regarded in the West. But stand beside a donkey and see: even Rodin could not sculpt a thinker like the donkey appears, standing there and thinking. The donkey thought and thought. Hunger grew, but he could not decide: left or right? Because one had to be left. He was unwilling to leave even one; he wanted both. In trying to gain both, he lost both. There is a saying: “Accomplish one rightly and all is accomplished.” The donkey knew nothing of it. He could only go to one heap. This is the state of everyone’s mind. What appears in the world seems worth gaining. And what the saints say also seems worth gaining. The mind gets stuck between two greeds. Sometimes you think, “I will drop everything.” Immediately you see: the…

I am not saying that the mind has to be destroyed; it has only to be put aside so when you need to you can use it. It is like your car parked in the garage: when you want to use it you can take it out of the garage, then you are the master. But ordinarily the situation has become just the reverse: the car insists on not going into the garage. The car says "I am not going to stop," the car says "You have to run with me," and it goes on running twenty-four hours a day. Even while you are asleep the mind goes on and on. Ordinarily once it starts in childhood it never stops before death, unless somebody starts moving into meditation. Those are the very fortunate few people who enter into meditation.

In the middle age hua-tzu of yang-li in sung lost his memory. He would receive a present in the morning and forget it by the evening; give a present in the evening and forget it by the morning. In the street he would forget to walk; at home he would forget to sit down. Today he would not remember yesterday; tomorrow he would not remember today.

HIS FAMILY WERE TROUBLED ABOUT IT AND INVITED A DIVINER TO TELL HIS FORTUNE BUT WITHOUT SUCCESS. THEY INVITED A SHAMAN TO PERFORM AN AUSPICIOUS RITE BUT IT MADE NO DIFFERENCE. THEY INVITED A DOCTOR TO TREAT HIM BUT IT DID NO GOOD. THERE WAS A CONFUCIAN OF LU WHO ACTING AS HIS OWN GO-BETWEEN CLAIMED THAT HE COULD CURE IT. HUA-TZU'S WIFE AND CHILDREN OFFERED HALF OF THEIR PROPERTY IN RETURN FOR HIS SKILL. THE CONFUCIAN TOLD THEM: 'THIS IS CLEARLY NOT A DISEASE WHICH CAN BE DIVINED BY HEXAGRAMS AND OMENS, OR CHARMED AWAY BY AUSPICIOUS PRAYERS, OR TREATED BY MEDICINES AND THE NEEDLE. I SHALL TRY REFORMING HIS MIND CHANGING HIS THOUGHTS THERE IS A GOOD CHANCE THAT HE WILL RECOVER.' THEN THE CONFUCIAN TRIED STRIPPING HUA-TZU AND HE LOOKED FOR HIS CLOTHES; TRIED STARVING HIM AND HE LOOKED FOR FOOD; TRIED SHUTTING HIM UP IN THE…

When thought objects vanish, the thinking subject vanishes, as when the mind vanishes, objects vanish. Things are objects because of the subject; the mind is such because of things. Understand the relativity of these two and the basic reality: the unity of emptiness. In this emptiness the two are indistinguishable and each contains in itself the whole world. If you do not discriminate between coarse and fine you will not be tempted to prejudice and opinion.

Give love, and the begging bowl is there, your love has disappeared. Give your whole life, and the begging bowl is there, looking at you with complaining eyes. "You have not given anything. I am still empty." And the only proof that you have given is if the begging bowl is full -- and it is never full. Of course, the logic is clear: you have not given. You have achieved many many things -- they have all disappeared in the begging bowl. The mind is a self-destructive process. Before the mind disappears you will remain a beggar. Whatsoever you can gain will be in vain; you will remain empty. And if you dissolve this mind, through emptiness you become filled for the first time. You are no more, but you have become the whole. If you are, you will remain a beggar. If you are not, you become the…

4. Suppose you are gradually being deprived of strength or of knowledge. At the instant of deprivation, transcend.

5. DEVOTION FREES. But either way one goes on worrying about the future. Buddha said, "There is no heaven and no afterlife." And he said, "There is no soul, and your death will be total and complete; nothing will survive." People thought he was an atheist. He was not, he was just trying to create a situation in which you can forget the tomorrow and can remain in this very moment, here and now. Then meditation follows very easily. So if you are thinking of death -- not the death which will come, or is to come later -- fall down on the ground and lie dead. Relax and feel, "I am dying, I am dying, I am dying." And not only think it, feel it in every limb of the body, in every fib of the body. Let death creep in. It is one of the most beautiful meditations.…